I've studied the film industry, both academically and informally, for 25 years and extensively written about it for the last five years. My outlets for film criticism, box office commentary, and film-skewing scholarship have included The Huffington Post, Salon, and Film Threat. Follow me at @ScottMendelson.

The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

'Amazing Spider-Man 2' Gets "Final Trailer"

Another day, another Amazing Spider-Man 2 trailer. Okay, so the trailer dropped this morning from SonySony is allegedly the “final trailer”. But what does it say about the deluge of trailers between early December and mid-March that Sony basically has to reassure people that this trailer is the absolute last one you’ll see? And of course, it’s more about merely running out of time. The film may open on May 1st in America, but it drops on April 18th overseas. So by the time The Amazing Spider-Man 2 drops on April 18th, we will have had three domestic trailers, two international trailers, a two-part Super Bowl commercial, and a four-minute “sizzle reel”. If ever there was an example of too much of a good thing…

And that’s the irony, folks. Despite my rather consistent ragging on the marketing campaign, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 looks pretty darn good. The film looks colorful and witty, with a bright palette that feels like it was shot on old-school 35mm 2D film, because it darn-well was. The swinging scenes played great when I saw the last theatrical trailer in an actual movie theater, and Andrew Garfield is clearly more comfortable in the title role. Despite fears of villain-overcrowding, the marketing seems to be focusing on a single adversary, Jamie Foxx’s Electro, with a new Green Goblin popping up right at the end (think Two-Face in The Dark Knight) and Paul Giamatti’s Rhino being a glorified curtain-raiser. Nonetheless, the focus remains on Parker himself, with a family revelation subplot that feels like deleted scenes from the last film’s “untold story”.

Ironically, despite the first film selling itself as a teen romance that happened to have web-slinging, this sequel’s marketing campaign features almost no Emma Stone save for scenes hinting at her character’s iconic four-color demise. But the film nonetheless looks like a solid and entertaining sequel, freed from the needless “do the origin story again” baggage that weighed down the last Amazing Spider-Man, and free to chart whatever narrative path it chooses. We’ll know soon enough if Marc Webb’s sequel corrects the mistakes of the prior film, and I’ll be the first to proclaim artistic triumph if that’s the case. So the big question is why Sony felt the need to drown fans in spoiler-ific trailers and clips for a film that A) was pretty much a predetermined blockbuster and B) looked pretty solid from its very first trailer back in December?

It’s not just The Amazing Spider-Man 2 of course. Even as Captain America: The Winter Soldier awaits the embargo break from last week’s junket screenings, Walt DisneyWalt Disney still saw fit to release the entire first ten minutes of the feature online yesterday. And I made no secret last year of my annoyance at how Universal chose to basically give away the key action sequences in Fast and Furious 6. I’m imagining a terrible future where studios release the first half of their films online in the hopes that you’ll buy a ticket to see how it ends. Even if X-Men: Days of Future Past is an artistic disaster, I still hope that it becomes a massive hit for 20th Century FoxFox purely to reward them for not drowning us in spoiler-filled trailers. We’re getting just the second trailer next week, so one can hope that Fox can keep the film close to its proverbial vest for the last two months.

So we’ve got exactly a month to go before the overseas debut of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which means by default this is the last trailer we’re presumably going to see. The sheer amount of footage unleashed suggests desperation and worry, even as the footage revealed offers little to be concerned about. Sure the hardcore fans may complain or nitpick, but it looks like a perfectly okay Spider-Man film. But, once again, I could have told you that way back in December. I eagerly await the end of this long national nightmare that is the marketing campaign of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 so I can get to the part where we all see the film, discuss the film, and then dissect its financial performance.

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